


The Heroes We Need

by flipflop_diva



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Alternate Universe — All Female Avengers, BAMF Maria Hill, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 03:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12003987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: “The world needs its heroes," Fury had said, and Maria got to work.





	The Heroes We Need

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



“The world needs its heroes," Fury had said to her that dark night, the two of them alone in a shady bar where no one would ever expect them to be, sitting in shadows in the back corner, sipping a beer and watching the newscast out of the corner of their eyes.

She still wasn’t sure how it had all gone to hell, how most of the Avengers were now fugitives from governments of half the world, how their best chance of defending the world was now practically no chance at all. She wished again that she had been brought in on this from the beginning. She could have talked to Pepper, they could have talked to people. They could have fixed this before it broke.

“The world wants heroes who sign Accords and promise to do what they’re told,” she said, repeating the standard line that everyone on seemingly every news station was spouting.

“Maybe,” Fury said. He sipped his drink. “Maybe not.”

Maria tapped her fingers on the table, just millimeters from the files she had placed in front of her.

“You really think I can do this,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“No one else,” he answered.

“And anyone I want. Even if there are fugitives on the team?”

There was almost a twinkle in his eye when he spoke again.

“I’d be disappointed if there weren’t.”

•••

Natasha was the hardest to find, so Maria found her first. She couldn’t imagine doing this without her. And she didn’t think she would want to either.

“How did you know where to look for me?” Natasha asked her that night, after Maria told her the idea. She hadn’t seemed very convinced, but in typical Natasha fashion, she hadn’t let much show in the way of any response.

“You act like I don’t know you,” Maria said. 

“If you can find me …”

Maria reached over, placed a hand on her friend’s arm. She felt the quick tension in Natasha’s body before she relaxed, still not being used to being casually touched, even so many years later.

“You’re safe. I promise,” Maria told her.

“I won’t be if we do this.”

“Yes, you will,” Maria said. “We’re working on it.”

Natasha raised a brow. “Do you know how many people want to get their hands on me?”

“Of course.” Maria smiled. “I’m one of them.”

“That doesn’t count.”

“Yes, it does. Because I know this isn’t you. You’re not the woman who has to hide away anymore. I know you want to be out there helping people. We can do that. We don’t need a Tony or a Steve or a Thor or a Banner. And Clint can go home.”

Natasha sighed. “Who else are you thinking?”

Maria told her, pretending along with Natasha that she was still deciding, that this wasn’t just her way of saying okay.

•••

The rest of them were far easier to find, but just as hard to convince. Except with each one, Maria brought her secret weapon. It was hard to say no when Natasha was with her, ready to risk being thrown into a high security prison if she were caught.

Pepper worried about the company, about her place in the business world.

“It will change,” Maria said. “But it depends what you really want to be.”

In the end, Pepper decided she was more than a CEO of someone else’s company.

For May, it meant leaving SHIELD — and leaving Phil and the rest of the team.

“We already change the world,” she said.

“We could use you,” Natasha said. “You know more than the rest of us combined. We trust you.”

“I don’t like to work outside the shadows,” May said. 

Natasha almost smiled. “Neither do I.”

Daisy wasn’t as hard to track down as she should have been. The wake of destruction in her path made it easy.

“I work alone now,” she said. “I’m a fugitive.”

“So am I,” Natasha said.

“Why me? Because I have powers now?” Daisy asked, and she looked at Maria as she spoke.

“Partly,” Maria said truthfully. “You’d be the most powerful one of the team. Three of us are ordinary humans. Pepper’s strength comes from a device.”

“You can all hold your own,” Daisy said.

“Yes,” Maria nodded. “And so can you. And you could before, too. I saw you then. That woman who was such a fighter is still in you, just now with powers. You’re strong and smart and brave. That’s what we want. Think about it.”

“And if someone comes after us?” Daisy asked.

“That,” Maria said, “is where your powers come in.”

•••

It was far from the luxury of Avengers Tower. It wasn’t even the huge compound in upstate New York that had been the training facility of the second generation of the team for the year before it all went to hell. It was barely better furnished that the hiding area Coulson and his team had landed in when they had all erased themselves from existence.

But the underground complex with the bare furnishings, hidden so deep and so far into the desert of New Mexico that no one would ever be able to find them easily, would more than do.

They had weapons, they had training facilities. They even had a Quinjet. And had each other.

“I’m still not sure about this,” Natasha had said to her the night before, just before they boarded the Quinjet that Coulson had lent them. “The world thinks I’m the bad guy. If you guys are going to change public opinion …”

“Then I want you there,” Maria interrupted her. 

Natasha shook her head. “I wasn’t a very good Avenger before,” she said softly, so soft Maria almost wondered whether she was talking to her at all. “If I were, we would all still be here.”

Maria was quiet for a second, taking in her friend’s face. Natasha’s expression gave nothing away, but her eyes gave away everything. The insecurity, the doubt, the fear that maybe the whole mess with Bucky and Steve and Tony and the Accords could have been avoided if she had just done something differently.

But Maria knew better.

“That’s not on you,” she said. “You were the best, Natasha. You deserve to be here.”

She was quite sure Natasha still had doubts about her place. But then Maria thought they all had them. Yet they had all come, and they were all here now, standing in front of her: the assassin turned spy, the CEO turned Extremis, the woman who had never lost a fight at SHIELD and the one they called Quake.

All of them here, because she asked them to be.

“Avengers Assemble!” she called, testing the phrase out for the first time on her mouth, and when she saw the four women in front of her stand just a little straighter, she smiled.

Fury had been right. This did feel good.

They could do this.


End file.
